NEWS FLASH!

Judge Approves Closure of Beth Israel Hospital!!!

Mount Sinai Rushes Patients Out the Door—Beth Israel Restraining Order that Stopped Closure is Lifted!

By Arthur Schwartz

As Village View was on its way to the printer Supreme Court Judge Jeffrey Pearlman lifted the Temporary Restraining Order which had kept Beth Israel Hospital open since February 2024. He then dismissed the lawsuit by an array of community groups, and found that although the Department of Health’s approval of the closure was flawed, he would not say it was “arbitrary and capricious.” In fact, the DOH “absorption analysis” was largely hypothetical, and was built on the premise that if the Beth Israel Emergency Room wasn’t there, the 50,000 people who used it would mostly go to a new Urgent Care facility on 14th Street. Within hours of the stay being lifted Beth Israel’s admitted patients were being wheeled out the door, in a scene which nurses described as chaotic. The leadership was trying to get folks out before an appellate court reissued the restraining order. On February 25th that court application was made. The whole story coming in April.

Governor Hochul Spends Lots on Hospitals, But Not on Beth Israel

According to Mount Sinai Hospital, which owns Beth Israel and spent 12 years destroying the hospital’s profitability, it is now losing $500,000 a day by keeping the hospital open.

But what would Mt. Sinai say if Governor Hochul gave a couple of hundred million dollars infusion, or maybe even more to modernize. Or maybe enough to build a smaller, but more efficient hospital, which would allow Mt. Sinai to cash in on the $1.2 billion in real estate the hospital sits on.

Its plausible. In late January Governor Hochul, who had pushed to close state-owned Downstate Hospital a year ago, announced nearly $1 billion in capital spending in the upcoming budget, to transform, modernize and revive the SUNY Downstate hospital in central Brooklyn. SUNY Downstate hospital is an academic medical center in Brooklyn that serves New York City’s five boroughs. The hospital offers both inpatient and outpatient services. However, following years of disrepair, Downstate’s facilities require significant renovations, and it will be at risk of financial insolvency without additional support.

New York State’s funding, totaling a combined $950 million, seeks to address these challenges and ensure the hospital’s continued role as an essential healthcare and training facility, offering a sign of life for the aging hospital. The funding will include $550 million in capital and operating support from the state’s FY 2026 Executive Budget and an additional $400 million through the FY 2025 Enacted Budget.

The Governor wasn’t through. In her proposed budget Hochul greenlit seven hospital partnerships across the state in an attempt to help struggling safety-nets turn around their finances. The initiative is designed to incentivize financially stable institutions to help cash-strapped medical institutions improve the quality of care and their financial sustainability.

For example, the state will infuse up to $188 million to Memorial Sloan Kettering and Jamaica Hospital to create a comprehensive cancer center in Queens. The upper east side oncology center will help Jamaica Hospital build a radiation and infusion therapy center on its campus, and in exchange the new center will refer patients to Memorial Sloan Kettering for advanced treatment or participation in clinical trials, the governor’s office said.

Hochul allocated $300 million to the health care safety-net transformation program in last year’s budget, but demand for the program outpaced available funding in its first year, according to the governor’s office. Hochul increased funding for the program by $1 billion in her 2026 executive budget. The program is called the Safety Net Transformation Program.

Governor Hochul: the people of Lower Manhattan need to save their Safety Net Hospital, which your Health Department has okayed for closure. We are as diverse a community as you get. Public Housing. 65% of residents are over 65 or disabled. Why can’t you help!?!